Princess Marie attends AIDS-Fondet’s "A Generation without HIV" event

Today, Princess Marie was in Skodsborg to attend AIDS-Fondet’s event for the campaign “A Generation Without HIV”. Princess Marie is Patron of AIDS-Fondet.

AIDS-Fondet launched the “A Generation Without HIV” campaign aiming to prevent Ethiopian mothers to infect their children with HIV during their pregnancy, the birth or breastfeeding. Indeed , in Ethiopia, 25% of the babies born of an HIV-infected mother is infected by HIV too at birth and 100000 children live with HIV.

AIDS-Fondet works with local organizations to develop an easy method that would prevent this infection but they also work on spreading that method so that it can be efficient. This method takes into account the difficulties Ethiopian women face and try to improve their daily life and hygiene. Since the women are often poorly fed, they can’t produce enough milk to breastfeed so the organizations gives milk for the mother for the six months after the birth and then to the child for the next six months.

AIDS-Fondet also pays for the trip to the hospital for these women for the initial checkup after the birth. The Foundation also created group meetings for HIV-infected people so that they can talk about the challenges they face. Another new initiative is the father groups created so that the fathers can understand the struggle the mothers and the children face and will face in the future.

They also train the volunteer women who go from door to door to make sure every pregnant woman is tested for HIV. This method is approved by the World Health Organization and proved a 0% infection rate.

Princess Marie made a speech as Patron of AIDS-Fondet: “I stand here as Patron of AIDS-Fondet, but I’m also here as a mother. Today is an important day, for today we are here to give our contribution to the fight for a world without HIV and AIDS- a world where no children will be born with HIV. AIDS has, for decades, taken millions of parents away from their children and especially African children who have lost their mother, their father or both parents to AIDS. And too many children have been born with HIV. “

“The world has fought hard and we have won important fights against HIV and AIDS. Today, 36.7 million people in the world live with HIV and half of them have been granted treatment. In 2016, 160,000 children worldwide were infected with HIV, but back in 2010, there were twice as many children. We will celebrate these strong results! But without forgetting that we have not won the fight yet. Even though more people are being tested and undergoing treatment, still more then 17 million HIV-infected patients are left untreated. AIDS remains the primary care of death for women and young girls age 15-49 years old during their pregnancy. And Southeastern Africa remains the part of the world that is hit the hardest by AIDS. “

“As a mother of healthy children, I can only try to understand the powerlessness and sorrow of an HIV-positive mother when she gets her newborn baby in her arms with the message : You have infected your child with HIV. No mother should hear that message!But this is still true for hundreds of thousands of mothers and fathers in Africa and especially in Ethiopia, where 25% of the children are infected with HIV by their mother.”

“Today, together, we can take an important step towards a generation without HIV. Today we have the opportunity to help mothers and fathers in Ethiopia so their children are born without HIV and grow up fast, strong and dreaming of a future – like our own children. But this requires access to treatment for all HIV-positive pregnant women in Ethiopia. It requires a lot of knowledge and support for the newly-bred families. My hope, as Patron and as a mother, is that ,today, we will support AIDS-Fondet’s project in Ethiopia together. Together, we can create a generation without HIV – a world without AIDS.”

The goal of this event was to raise money for the campaign. We don’t have numbers yet but I truly hope it has been successful! If you wish to donate to the campaign , you can do it here(DKK 75 = $11/€10)

I believe that her clutch is new, however it looks really similar to three other clutches she owns that are still UFOs. UPDATE: I got confirmation that her clutch is from Etui Bags! I believe she might be wearing her Sergio Rossi pumps but it is hard to tell as the photos of the shoes are not great